The Good the Bad and the UGLY with Insurance!

[SASKFARMER3]

Getting phone calls lately to meet with guys for insurance needs for our farm.
One is a group of guys who have a custom made insurance plan its a select group. The other is insurance that makes you spend or lets you spend on inputs all way so you try your best to grow a crop. It costs around 11 or more a acre.
Then their is what we have been doing for a while.
Crop insurance, Hail insurance and Feed Agra invest and stick with Ag Stab.

Or good old Cash in the Bank and a years crop in the bins.

So who has looked at all these scenarios or has a system that kind of leaves them happy.

What works and what is more just spend spend spend.

I believe no one has a guarantee to farm.

[jamesb]

GARS is an interesting thing to watch for me. Lots of smart farmers have signed up but, I hear what guys are insured for but I would like to see data showing where farmers trigger payments and how that worked. With the way 2015 was there had to be farms that triggered payments. Speak up guys that know about this

[farmaholic]

Your "self insure" scenario... will be the cheapest, but riskiest. If you're putting a crop in the ground with prebought(and paid for, not on credit) expenses and deferring income and have left over inventory in the bins, do you "need" crop insurance and Ag Stab? I realize no one could afford successive years of losses under that scenario, but that is when insurance would be needed.

Every farm's needs will vary, just like the operators that manage them.

One size will not fit all...

We don't carry Crap Ins, we enroll in Ag Stab but likely will never collect and if we do, the crop will have been REAL BAD. Ag Invest is a no brainer.

Are you borrowing most of the money for inputs? How's the line of credit and operating loan revolving? How much money do you need for land and iron payments, is there any off farm income?...you might need crop insurance!

[SASKFARMER3]

Gars is one I would like to here from guys and find out if they ever received anything in a bad year.

The group one is interesting where its tailored to you but its a tough group to join.

Ag Invest is a no brainer.

Again speak up guys.

[bucket]

Gars is all paper.

I don't think they check shit.

Think if you have multiple guys in an operation with separate yards or neighbors on the same page it would be easy to scam them.

[Grahamp]

With GARS here but never had a claim. I would say like most crop insurance it is hard to claim, because it is based on all your acres. In our case we had about 50 dollars an acre better coverage for about the same money as SCIC.

The other thing is your financials. If you are with an accountant who always gets your financials done late, you will be out of money before you get a check.

We endorse our lowest acre crop and then we can buy too wet to seed on every acre, and that is all we carry with SCIC. That is the hole with GARS if too wet to seed they say you don't have an input spend so you aren't covered.

I dropped hail insurance and am counting on GARS for the rest. Out of agristability.

[Oliver88]

The difference I see with GARS vs SCIC is that it insures ALL crops together in one claim vs each crop individually. The chances of triggering a payment are reduced due to this.

I believe the intention of GARS is to provide a replacement for Agri-Stability and tailored for the high yield producers who really puts the "groceries" on his plants, hopefully it can offer competition.

[furrowtickler]

GARS would work very well if it was a crop by crop insurance - kinda spot loss .
We lost $350,000 on our peas in 2014 - never got pmt from GARS

[seabass]

Had the same scenario with canola one year furrow.Is a good program if u could insure individual crops. I think we paid around 11 bucks an acre. Never been paid out but I like the part where I can cover my costs plus extras if I choose.

[SASKFARMER3]

I guess their is nothing for free.
Adding another 100000 bill to the farm that some years peas win some canola wins and some times wheat wins so probably stick with what's worked.
Even the year it froze canola did better on high land and yielded well frost cooked the cereals. Peas made out not bad.
Ah farming.

[SASKFARMER3]

I guess their is nothing for free.
Adding another 100000 bill to the farm that some years peas win some canola wins and some times wheat wins so probably stick with what's worked.
Even the year it froze canola did better on high land and yielded well frost cooked the cereals. Peas made out not bad.
Ah farming.

[ajl]

When I looked at GARS the premium was around 17 bucks an acre and the probability of them paying out was less the probability of hitting the 6/49 jackpot. Gars and INPT are for the mathematically challenged. In AB the formula is 60% crop insurance with hail endorsement, cash in the bank, and some inventory. That will be the winner over the long run.

[blackpowder]

Likely also depends on your cropping area. Ive heard coverage/cost in the special areas thru afsc doesnt work well.

[SASKFARMER3]

It seems like most insurance. Sounds better than is. Had a hail storm last summer hit house in city phoned the insurance company and they said I didn't change shingles in last 5 to 10 years so no coverage. The house was new 10 years ago. I guess 25 year shingles aren't worth the money you spend.
They didn't send back my premium for hail.

[Guest]

sf3 , your ins agent is stringing you along . shingles are definetely covered . we got ours changed by sgi for nothing after 17 years , they were real good about it . I was surprised not even any depreciation